H1-B Visa issue

Once again, another tech company (Microsoft, but it could easily be Intel, Oracle, or ABC) wants to say that the limits on H1-B is limiting their ability to hire and will ultimately hurt their business. Sorry folks, but I don't believe it. When I came out of school, these same companies were screaming that they only wanted experience. Then the story became that they could not find enough American workers. Then the story was that they needed to open lots of overseas offices because the "talent" was overseas. To be blunt, the issue is that a company can get more foreign workers for the same amount than they can get american workers. Its that simple. I just don't understand why they are trying to "sell" people on something different. Just admit the truth and move on.

This whole issue is as dumb as Dr. Craig Barrett of Intel that is trying to say that Americans need to get a better education. This implies that a company will want to hire you with this increased education and expertise.

On associated thought on this issue: "The ability to speak english is not indicative of intelligence."

</rant>

Update: What do I mean by this? I just wish that the people pushing the H1-B issue would tell the truth about their goals as oppossed to playing games. If a company wants to setup shop overseas, thats fine with me. Its their business, they should be able to run it as they see fit. If a company wants to bring over a lot of people through the H1-B process, thats fine. I just get upset when they hide behind this game of "we can't find talent here." Its an excuse I don't believe and never will.

4 Comments

Wallace, I think you are missing the point, which is that the immigration law is broken.

The H1-B issue is just a specific point that illustrates this. Why does a company have to struggle with the bureaucratic barriers if it wants to recruit a bright foreign individual?

It hasn't been about getting a bigger pool of candidates for a while. If you haven't noticed, the Web has enabled global recruitment without regards to nationality.

And yet, an illiterate farmer who crossed the border illegally has a far greater chance of becoming a lawful citizen than a Ph.D. who came to the U.S. on a visa. This is what you would call a policy of &quot;national endumbment&quot;.

At least if the individuals live here in America, then the American economy reaps some benefits of their work, instead of having Microsoft open offices in India/Germany wherever and having our US Dollars funnelled straight out of the country.

I think the entire IT sector has downgraded because of the 9/11 scale back of visas, not just because of the resulting economic downturn because of fear and speculation of 9/11.

Outsourcing is killing our economy, weaking our dollars, and is generally bad bad bad because all those dollars being paid out to foreign workers are not coming back to the US.

Just to clear some misconceptions in your mind... H1-B workers have to be paid the same amount as a US worker would, or else the department of labor will not approve the H1-B application. Everyone thinks H1-B workers get paid less, this is just not true.

Offshore development groups a.k.a Outsourcing is not the same as hiring H-1B workers.

I have hired H1-B (or foreign workers) and it is not that they are smarter or have a better education... its just that their work ethic is superior. They are willing to work longer hours, even though it is not required and produce better results.